Four Months
by mustardgirl1128
Summary: COMPLETE! For Crina and the Annual Fic Exchange. Percy/Audrey. "She smiled at him, and his thoughts were suddenly wiped out, like a cleaned plate or an erased blackboard." Fourshot.
1. January

_For Crina, with love_

**January**

The love affair of Percy Weasley and Audrey Davies began one wintry day in the middle of January.

It was innocent, and beautiful, and passionate, and somehow it worked. Somehow it had the chance to see the light, to make it through the tunnel.

Only on that snowy day, Percy Weasley was not thinking of tunnels, or of Roger Davies's elder sister. Of the dark-haired beauty in the cubicle twelve down from his, precisely. Oh, no.

His thoughts were of his family. Of his mother's cheerful smile and of his father's laugh. Of his brothers Bill and Charlie's ability to hold them together, and of the twins' ability to make them laugh in the direst of times. Of Ron's and Ginny's sweet little faces.

Of the Christmas sweater he'd sent back to his mother.

Far from making him happy, thinking of his family caused him to become bitter, angry, and _oh_ so guilty.

Because he knew, in his heart of hearts, that they were right. He was wrong. But he was too proud, was too _scared_ to go back to them. And so instead, they filled his thoughts.

A knock sounded on the wall opposite the one he faced, and he turned abruptly.

"Hello," a sweet, melodic voice said. She was tall, pale, and dark-haired, with sparkling green eyes and a long, graceful neck. She smiled at him, and his thoughts were suddenly wiped out, like a cleaned plate or an erased blackboard. It was all he could do not to stare.

Somehow, he managed to croak out, "Hello."

"Mr. Weasley, correct?"

He stiffened and nodded. What did this woman have to speak to _him_ about?

She smiled encouragingly and said, "Minister Fudge asked me to write out my recent research. Here it is—my file." She placed a folder with a neat _For the Minister_ written in the corner. She turned to go when he, on impulse, grabbed her hand.

"Miss…"

"Davies," she supplied, smiling again. "Audrey Davies."

He will _never_ know what possessed him to ask, but ask he did—"Is You-Know-Who back?" He was gripping at straws, was begging for reassurance. He needed to hear it was true, or wasn't. He needed to know.

Her face turned solemn and sour. "Of course." And with those two simple, heartbreaking words, she swept out of his cubicle.

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A/N: This is the first chapter of a three- or fourshot for my fabulous friend Crina, who is amazing! Hugs to you and all your fics!

Also, I'm participating in Kore-of-Myth's Annual Fic Exchange, which is how this all came about. This was very short, my apologies. But later chapters will be (kind of) longer, I promise!!

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	2. April

_For Crina, with love_

**April**

"Excuse me, sir, but I can't seem to find the way to…" She trails off and looks up at him. He's staring, a wide smile spread across his face. Even with her hair flowing over her pale face and recognizable green eyes, she's the same. Even in Muggle London.

"Audrey!" he says, his voice excited.

"Not—Percy? But I haven't seen you…" She searches for the last time, her face as joyful as his.

"Last January…yes. Well. A lot's happened."

"Shall we catch up then, Mr. Weasley?"

He grins at her and nods. "Of course."

They are inside a teashop in a matter of moments. She is telling him about her life since January, and she leaves nothing out to spare his feelings. "Roger's graduated, of course, and in January he was only preparing, but now he's off to France for a year abroad. Personally, I think he's fantasizing about finding Fleur Delacour again and starting something, but I hear she's back in England. Dating your brother, no less."

"So I hear," he mumbles into his tea, wishing desperately that they can avoid this subject.

She raises her eyebrows but goes on without inquiry, and he gives her a grateful smile. She does not return it. "I'm planning on beginning my official career as a professor as soon as I can, as my years as research assistant are nearly up. It was a good, easy way to make money before, but now I want to do what I love."

She pauses, and he smiles. "Good plan," he says, in a half-hearted attempt at his previous buoyancy. "I could never do it, though. I'm not one for…for children." He hates that she raises her eyebrows again and does not comment. He hates that he wants to tell her. He hates that he was almost going to say, "I'm not one for change. For saying I'm wrong. For little boys that think they're celebrities." He hates himself.

"So, tell me about yourself," she says when she finishes, and they drink the last of their tea. They pay as he wonders what he can possibly say to entertain someone like _her_.

They leave and stroll down the streets in a cool, comfortable silence. Finally, he opens his mouth.

She stops and turns to look at him, and suddenly he's totally forgotten what he was planning on telling her. He's forgotten his own _name_, and then he can't help it—he kisses her. He kisses her long, hard, and passionately, and to his ultimate surprise, she kisses him back. He grips the back of her head and pulls her onto a more secluded street so that he's able to break apart from her and Apparate them in a moment to his apartment.

And then they're kissing again, as if there is no tomorrow, as if they're young and impetuous and are _allowed_ to be doing this.

Through his foggy mind he wonders _how, how can she do this_? He wonders how someone so well-composed, who has a plan for everything, can possibly let herself go this way.

But he forgets the thought, forgets everything as clothes are shed and they fall to the bed.

He forgets everything but _them_, their togetherness, their sudden ardor, and the smell of her hair and he runs his fingers through her dark locks.

And when it's over, when they're sweating and pleasured and oh-so-vulnerable, she whispers—almost too silent for him to make out—_How could I have done that?_

He sits up, suddenly not tired or pleasured. But he is still oh-so-vulnerable, and he can't possibly help it when he looks at her pale, naked body lying there beside him.

One hundred thoughts fly through his head to make up for his erased chalkboard. He stares at her, stares his fill, and then stands up.

"How _can _you do this?" he asks her, and then walks away from the room, from her wide green eyes and arching neck and their first declaration of love.

He walks away, and he doesn't look back.

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A/N: Aaah, still very short. Sorry, sorry, sorry! 2 chapters left! Review?

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	3. July

_For Crina, with love_

**July**

He ignores her at work and avoids her otherwise. She'll spot him in Honeyduke's and nearly walk over, but then he'll be gone—like a poof of smoke. She sees him into the windows of his brothers' shop and he feels her eyes on his back as she stalks past, with a murmured, "Hi."

He never says anything.

And sooner or later, she stops trying to say hello.

She _must_ know how she hurt him. She _must_ know how she ruined him. But she pretends otherwise, pretends everything is fine.

The smile pasted on her face infuriates her. The "hello"s kill him, a little bit each time.

And then he sees Penny again.

_Penelope Clearwater, Healing Apprentice_, he spots printed under the stack of business letters he's to mail. Right underneath: _Dear Madam Pansy Zabini…. _He stares, and then a slow smile spreads across his face. They were together for little more than two years, yet she was most certainly his first love, his first everything. They matched well, at the time—the ambitious, pompous Head Boy and the cheerful, peppy, but just as ambitious and pompous Prefect.

They stayed friends—a clean break. She'd always wanted to be a Healer, and now she'd managed it. And he could _always_ just pop in for a chat, pretending it to be business-related…though she was only an Apprentice…still…

The smile stays on his face all day, and he even waves to a surprised Audrey. The end of the day comes much too slowly for the excited man, and he bounces on the balls of his feet like he hasn't in _years_ during the last ten minutes.

"Someone's cheerful," she mutters as she passes his cubicle.

"Someone's not happy about that," he says, and even _she_ can't ruin this newfound hope.

She rolls her eyes and stalks into the office. "For how long, _buddy_? That day in Muggle London? Afterwards? Ever broken up? When did you start? Do you care about me _at all_?"

"What?" he gasps, dumbfounded. Her eyes flash, and she jabs a perfectly-manicured fingernail at his chest. Her voice is a low hiss, and he notices a few wisps of black have escaped her careful, business-like bun.

"Don't _what_ me, like you're an innocent or something! You're seeing someone, and tonight you're going to propose. Aren't you? I _knew_ you were too good to be true! You have this _whole time_, right? Since we met! You just wanted a fuck partner, someone to make you happy when she wasn't around!" Her anger finally runs out, and she deflates. "You don't care a _goddamn whit_ about me. I knew it. I _knew_ it—it's always like this!"

She storms out, her bun totally undone and her eyes watering. He can't think, can't move, can't breathe. Everyone rushes from the office at once, jostling to get to the front of the crowd. A moment ago he'd be with them, but now he collapses into his desk chair and stares, unblinking, at the wall before him.

It's bare. Empty of pictures, of posters or any sort of anything. It's totally bare…like his life.

Audrey _actually loved him_. Actually. Of course, she now hates him with every bone in her body, he can imagine. But those alluring eyes, the sensual nose and the arching neck…how can he not love her?

He's up in a second, up and running to her, to her little office space where she's packing up slowly and wiping her eyes. Her hair is down and cascades smoothly against her neck, and she slaps it back every time it gets near her face. He stands and watches her for a moment, for just a moment, before he turns her around by her shoulders and kisses her—hard, passionate, angry, loving, caressing, gentle, and everything in between. She melts against him, the curves of her body matching and flowing into his effortlessly.

They fit, like two pieces of the puzzle of life, and _finally_ someone has thought to put them together. He kisses her, and she kisses him, and they are together.

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A/N: All that's coming is the epilogue. Very, very fluffy there at the end, my deepest apologies…:D Thanks to everyone who reviewed—don't stop now!


	4. October

_For Crina, with love_

**October**

A leaf falls to the ground, and so does Percy's resolve.

He's sworn not to wink at his _girlfriend_, make jokes or kiss her in public. And most importantly, he refuses to make love to her until they are both ready again.

She insists that she's ready, ready and waiting, and _what the hell am I waiting for?_

He's learned to love her dirty mouth as much as the rest of her. Her snide comments and sarcastic retorts send him laughing, and it's one of those times that she kisses him in their—_their—_apartment. And his resolve breaks.

"You regretted it last time," he tells her as they lie on the bed, breathing hard and sweating. She turns to lie on top of him, giggling.

"I was an _idiot_ last time. Or maybe this time. You know, Perce, it's possible to be wrong."

He shakes his head and laughs, but he feels horrible. It _is_ possible to be wrong, and he's wrong this time. Is he wrong about everything else? About his family, his _life?_

She interprets the worried look in his eyes as worry that _she's_ wrong. "Not about me, though, love," she says quickly, kissing him. And she silences his doubts with that clean slate way of hers, the way she can just _look_ at him and totally ruin his train of thought.

He gives her a half-smile and nods. "Merlin, I know," he says, and she laughs.

But he still wonders, all the time. _Is he wrong?_

It eats away at him, until he asks her one day. "You told me You-Know-Who was back, and you were right. So tell me now, lovely, your first reaction to this." He's never told her about his family, and she's never asked—only raised her perfect eyebrows and fall silent. Now, he knows that she's got to know.

"I'm estranged from my family, and it's my fault. I love the Ministry more than my own family. And I _do_ still think Dumbledore's senile. But the Ministry was wrong about You-Know-Who, and Merlin only knows how many other things. So should I…should I go back, Audrey? Should I apologize?"

The answer seems to flit out of her mouth without her thinking it, which is exactly what he needs. "Of course you should fucking go back, they're your _family!"_

Immediately, she looks almost fearful, as if he'll break up with her for that. He nods slowly. Finally, in a broken voice, he murmurs, "I don't know how."

* * *

A year passes slowly, and then another year. Another, another, another, and then he's made it to twenty-five and she's got a year on him.

His family loves her—George is her best friend and Bill likes to laugh at her language. Ginny is fascinated by the beauty and Ron's half in love—if he didn't have Hermione, Percy isn't sure he'd still have her. Charlie can talk dragons with her and Arthur can talk Muggles with her; either way she's fantastic.

It's only Molly who dislikes her, but she dislikes Fleur and Valeria, too, so he doesn't feel too worried. Percy's kind of confused, as it's _her _that brought him back in the first place. It's her language that's most of it, and everyone knows it. When Molly isn't in the room, they joke about it, teasing both women.

He's immensely proud of his girl, and he knows that if it weren't for her he'd never have had the courage to come back to them.

And then the day that she sleeps to late and wakes up retching.

The day that she breaks the news to him—"I'm pregnant with your child, Percy."

The wedding preparations are made, the ceremony is preformed—with his _wife_ stunning in a flowing white dress that hides her swelling stomach expertly.

And not twenty weeks later, their child is born, _Molly Grace Weasley_, a beautiful little miniature of her mother with a shock of red hair on her round little head.

He feeds her ice cream whenever her mother is away, whenever he can secretly manage it. And they giggle and eat and slurp and never forget, even this tiny girl who has a memory like his.

His favorite time is when he watches her sleep. Her little face is peaceful, and sometimes her mouth is curved up into a smile. He stares at her, and he can stare for hours. His wife stares with him, and they are united yet again.

Molly is their daughter, Percy and Audrey's little creation, and she'll never be anything less. She holds them together like the extra coat of glue, but the way his lovely wife tilts her head can still send his heart racing, and her smile always makes him weak in the knees.

It's true love, and nothing less than that.

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A/N: This is, once again, for the lovely Crina. I hope you enjoyed it, dahling, because it was great to write! Thanks Kore for the Annual Fic Exchange forum!

By the way, erm, I was notified of a slight confused _year_ in last chapter. Choose your own fantasy: Pansy & Blaise run away together or...Blaise's mum is called Pansy. (Um. Awkward. I prefer numero uno, but it's your choice!)

Now _please _review! For the very, very last time? The end of the fic?? _Please_?


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